Rethinking quarantine, a health journalist’s advice, & under-reported early successes: Best Education Journalism of the Week (09/17/2021)

📰 THE BIG RETURN: While news coverage has overwhelmingly focused on COVID concerns and setbacks, the big story that hasn’t gotten nearly all the headlines it deserves is what I call The Big Return. A month or two ago, it seemed possible or even likely that schools would switch back to remote learning or hybrid. But somehow that didn’t happen. The vast majority of U.S. schools returned to in-person learning despite political polarization, a surging Delta virus, and fear-amplifying media coverage focused on low-vaxx, low-mask Southern schools. The Biden White House, teachers unions, and school district leaders were not deterred. The process has been messy and precarious, to be sure. And some media outlets seem eager to speculate about district shutdowns and parent boycotts or to describe the situation as chaotic. But for now at least, millions more kids are back in school than last year. Schools and districts are making adjustments to keep kids safely in school. It’s notable and unfortunate that there’s been so little coverage pointing out how much progress has been made, preliminary as it may be. Two notable recent exceptions: The LA Times published a story this week reporting that COVID policies are working in schools. And US News noted that the numbers of cases and closures are relatively small given the enormous size of the US school system.

📰 THE FORGOTTEN STRATEGY: VENTILATION: Some school safety mechanisms like masking may have gotten more media attention than they warranted. But others like ventilation have arguably gotten much too little. It hasn’t gone entirely uncovered, of course. Education reporters like Colorado Public Radio’s Jenny Brundin have addressed school ventilation issues. A few others have written about flawed district purchasing processes that have resulted in ineffective equipment. But it’s good to remember that masks and vaccines — my personal obsession — are only part of the story. Is it true that portable filters don’t work with central air systems? (Apparently not.) What about those homemade boxes that some teachers and students are building? (They work, if you make them correctly.) How important is air quality compared to masks and distancing? (Very.) Start here for lots of information. Share your school ventilation stories by tagging @thegrade_.

📰 EASY SOURCES VS IMPORTANT ONES: In some ways, the school shutdown made finding sources easier than ever. You could do everything from your laptop or phone. For a time, you had to. But don’t be lulled into thinking that your online source-sleuthing is reaching the most vulnerable kids and parents, writes former WBUR education editor Kathleen McNerney in a new piece for Nieman Lab: “If education journalists are serious about covering inequity, we need to seek out the families and students that aren’t able to attend those events,” she writes. “Otherwise, we are only telling part of the story — the easiest one.” Who might you be missing? Sources without reliable internet, who never logged into public meetings or responded to social media queries, whose kids may have fallen off the radar and may still be out of school.

📰 TRAGIC BUT RARE: Every COVID death is a tragedy, including the deaths of educators and other school staff. But deaths of school staff have been relatively rare over the past 20 months, especially among the vaccinated. However, media outlets sometimes don’t take adequate care to make that clear to readers. In some cases, coverage has failed to note whether the death is attributed to being on campus. In other cases, the coverage has failed to note whether the death involved a person who was vaccinated. The most recent example is ​​Vaccinated Texas school counselor who ‘had done everything right’ dies after contracting COVID-19. This Dallas Morning News Education Lab story does note that “breakthrough cases like this are rare” and that school staff deaths have been relatively few in number. The effort to give readers context is clear. However, as has been noted in the past, the rare nature of vaccinated deaths should have been noted much higher in the story and in the headline.

📰 UNSOLICITED STORY IDEAS: I haven’t seen much reporting about much-discussed “disenrollment” procedures for kids whose parents refuse to send them to school. Other stories I’d like to see more: whether “test to stay” is a safe alternative to quarantines and closures, why some districts like Seattle and New York City have limited or opposed remote options so stubbornly, what it’s like being an unvaccinated educator/staffer going back to school, and how early-opening schools (from August) have fared over the past month. See more unsolicited story ideas here.